Abstract:
Aim: Internship is an important period in the development of the physicians’ professional capacity.
Different types of abuse have been reported in this training period that may influence learning ability and
students’ potential to deliver best care in the future. The objective of this study was to determine the
prevalence of perceived interns’ abuse during their internship period. Materials and Methods: This
cross‑sectional survey was conducted in June 2014 among interns of an educational hospital in
Yazd, Iran. The survey questionnaire was designed to gather information regarding the frequency
at which participants perceived themselves to have been abused, the type and source of abuse, and
the reasons why they did not report the perceived abuse. The questionnaire was reviewed by two
health care administrators and two general practitioners to establish face validity. Cronbach’s Alpha
of survey’s instrument was estimated at 0.78. The IBM SPSS Statistics version 20 was used for analysis
of the survey data. Results: The survey conducted revealed that most of the reported abuse had
academic roots (15.44 ± 5.75). Residents were most often cited as the sources of the perceived
abuse, followed by professors and nurses. The Department of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine was
the most frequently cited wards where the students experienced the perceived abuse. Only 11.8%
of the female students reported the abuse to a third party. Conclusion: Raising awareness among
the medical students regarding the mistreatment is important, and creating a system that monitors
these behaviors accurately and reliably can also be helpful.
Machine summary:
Intern’s experience of abuse during training course in an educational hospital in Yazd, Iran, 2014 Address for Correspondence: Noora Rafiee, Department of Health Care Management, School of Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.
The Department of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine was the most frequently cited wards where the students experienced the perceived abuse.
According to the previous studies, depression and loss of interest in attending the internship have been reported by the medical students who encountered abusive behavior during their internship.
[1] In this context, this study was aimed to assess the perceived experience of abuse in the field of training, and it attempts to represent the findings to the educational planners to concentrate on solving these problems in the medical students’ curriculum.
The questionnaire was developed by reviewing the literature to determine frequent sources and types of abusive behaviors reported by medical students.
Many studies that wereNurse Professor Resident carried out in this field indicated that prevalence of abuseFigure 1: Source of abuse to intern’s percentage among medical students vary between 30% in Ireland,[10] Reason11 Reason10 Reason9 Reason8 Reason7 Reason6 Reason5 Reason4 Reason3 Reason2 Reason1 100 80 60 40 20 0Figure 2: Percentage of reasons for not reporting the abuse cases )view the image of this page) 50% in Southern India,[11] 52% in Pakistan,[12] 62.
[17] Different studies reported different parties in healthcare who abuse medical students.
A report on student abuse during medical training.